April Books Roundup + Icon Meme
I have not forgotten to do this! It's just that the beginning of May is stupid-busy, what with Free Comic Book Day and all.
Wizard Of Mars: I REALLY REALLY LIKED THIS BOOK *_____*. I wasn't sure where they could really go after the last one, because it was pretty fucking intense! I swear to god, Diane Duane is one of about six writers that could honestly sell me on "The protagonists are the reincarnations of star-crossed lovers from a lost culture". From anyone else I'd be like "...What the fuck, that's stupid." But here I was like "...Okay then, let's see how they get out of that nonsense." And they did!
Note: If you care about Whether Kit And Nita Will Finally Just Get Together, get this book now. If you are like me and find will they/won't they stories incredibly frustrating and end up just wanting people to get together or decide not to, just to get it fucking over with, get this book now. If you don't really care either way about the romance suplot but have ever in your life been into Edgar Rice Burroughs, definitely get this book.
I'm usually pretty ambivalent to Ronan, but I genuinely liked him in this book, he had some of the best lines. And if one pretends that the Darryl in this book just happens to have the same name as Darryl from A Wizard Alone, you only have to ignore a few throwaway lines in order to pretend the stupid fuckery of that book didn't happen, which is nice! And the bits with Dairine with her father and also with Roshaun's father were SO GOOD, aigh, I want another book primarily from her POV. This is probably not surprising, Dairine is kind of one of my favourite characters in any medium. So.
Supergirls: Okay this was a pretty clever book, I learned some things I didn't know, particularly in the Golden Age section because I know next to nothing about that era of comics really. BUT. He snubbed Steph completely, and seemed to me to completely misunderstand Oracle. I hate to be That Fan, but those things are kind of dealbreakers, not gonna lie. He kept talking about how Oracle was Cold And Masculine or something, idk, I don't think he was reading the same books I was. It was a good book up until then, though! This is mostly just my own issues! I still recommend the book, I guess, although a lot of it is kind of introductory, so depending on how much of a comic-geek you are it may not be that informative....
Callahan's Lady:I have a weird relationship with Spider Robinson. The early Callahan stories are fucking brilliant and beautiful, they're about bad puns and forgiveness and community problem-solving and kindness to strangers and booze. Reading through them got me through some Terrible Brainchemistry Times.
But then somewhere in the middle of the series the focus shifts and they become about bad puns and doing terrible things to terrible people and sex and Jake Spider Jake sort of refusing to grow up and booze. And this book is kind of the exact midpoint. There are four novellas here; the first two did exactly what I want a Callahan story to do.
Then the third.... Was really fucking terrifying, it was about rape via mind control, and ended with Lady Sally erasing everyone's memory of the incident. THIS IS NOT A HAPPY ENDING, PEOPLE. And then the last one was all about screwing over a mob boss who is not only a disgusting terrible person, but a disgusting terrible person who is too stupid to ever be redeemed. It ends with prison rape jokes. This is why I only finished three books this month, I had to stop and put this one down constantly because it was gross.
Not on the list due to Paypal problems that can't be resolved until my mom gets back from B.C.: The Wolf House: Fair Game, Mary Borsellino.
And now, for something completely different: The meme where people pick icons for you to talk about is going around!
Via mrs-laugh-track:
All icons made by me. Because I like to only use my own, then I don't need to worry about forgetting who to credit.
1.
*________* STEPH. So for a while my Steph icon was really sad, it was dead!Steph from Batgirl with "Do not put your faith in a cape and a hood/They will not protect you the way that they should", from Into The Woods. Which was perfect for how I felt about Steph when I made it. But I started making more and more happy Steph-related posts, and so I needed a less depressing icon to use with them! And then for halfamoon this year I made a whole bunch of Gotham Girls icons. A lot of them used Ani DiFranco lyrics, because nearly a third of my BoP/Gotham Girls playlist is her. So! Stephanie Brown: More than a Pretty Girl. Yep.
2.
EVEN-NUMBERED ROBINS ARE MY FAVOURITE. This is a sad icon, obvs, because it is Memorial Cases of Bat-Angst, but it is also a triumphant icon because, Steph finally got a Case. I also ship Steph/Jason a ridiculous amount, and they've never actually met in-canon, so this is the closest to an icon of them I can probably get? I love them. They're both angry screw-ups determined to do what they think is right! What Jason thinks is right is occasionally uh, cutting people's heads off, but shh. ROBINS.
3.
Tim Burton and Lisa Marie, at the Sleepy Hollow premiere. I LOVE THEIR STUPID CRAZY SELVES. Lisa was Tim's long-term girlfriend throughout the nineties, she was the inspiration for Sally in Nightmare Before Christmas. The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy is dedicated to her. It includes this poem, which I am ridiculous enough to not have to go look up:
"Stick Boy loved Match Girl
He liked her a lot
He liked her cute figure
He thought she was hot
But could a flame ever burn for a match and a stick?
It did quite literally
He burnt up pretty quick"
Towards the end of their relationship, there was an online cartoon of Stainboy Adventures, where Lisa did the voice of Match Girl. Normal people stay together for the kids, they were at that point staying together for the chihuahua. The last movie they did together was Planet of the Apes, where Tim met Helena Bonham-Carter. Now, I love Helena! I really do! But I do think Tim's best, most creative output was when he was with Lisa.
THIS IS MY FANDOM. THAT NOBODY ELSE IS IN.
4.
There's this French/Polish film about the French Revolution/Reign of Terror, it's called Danton and colonize and I had to watch it in history class in high school. It is BRILLIANT, and by brilliant I mean probably not actually very good to normal people. It made me ship Robespierre/EVERYONE, it's kind of ridiculous. Anyway! "Don't ogle Citizen Robespierre!" is a line from that movie! SOUND ADVICE.
Also from that movie: This cap, which eventually morphed into "ROBESPIERRE, YOU IGNORANT SLUT!" which is Hilarious, okay.
I had originally planned to have a Kate Beaton icon for "History is my fandom", but I couldn't pick just one comic, so I've stuck with this one. Because Robespierre is comedy gold, when you're me, I guess.
So, yeah! Comment if you want me to pick some icons!
Wizard Of Mars: I REALLY REALLY LIKED THIS BOOK *_____*. I wasn't sure where they could really go after the last one, because it was pretty fucking intense! I swear to god, Diane Duane is one of about six writers that could honestly sell me on "The protagonists are the reincarnations of star-crossed lovers from a lost culture". From anyone else I'd be like "...What the fuck, that's stupid." But here I was like "...Okay then, let's see how they get out of that nonsense." And they did!
Note: If you care about Whether Kit And Nita Will Finally Just Get Together, get this book now. If you are like me and find will they/won't they stories incredibly frustrating and end up just wanting people to get together or decide not to, just to get it fucking over with, get this book now. If you don't really care either way about the romance suplot but have ever in your life been into Edgar Rice Burroughs, definitely get this book.
I'm usually pretty ambivalent to Ronan, but I genuinely liked him in this book, he had some of the best lines. And if one pretends that the Darryl in this book just happens to have the same name as Darryl from A Wizard Alone, you only have to ignore a few throwaway lines in order to pretend the stupid fuckery of that book didn't happen, which is nice! And the bits with Dairine with her father and also with Roshaun's father were SO GOOD, aigh, I want another book primarily from her POV. This is probably not surprising, Dairine is kind of one of my favourite characters in any medium. So.
Supergirls: Okay this was a pretty clever book, I learned some things I didn't know, particularly in the Golden Age section because I know next to nothing about that era of comics really. BUT. He snubbed Steph completely, and seemed to me to completely misunderstand Oracle. I hate to be That Fan, but those things are kind of dealbreakers, not gonna lie. He kept talking about how Oracle was Cold And Masculine or something, idk, I don't think he was reading the same books I was. It was a good book up until then, though! This is mostly just my own issues! I still recommend the book, I guess, although a lot of it is kind of introductory, so depending on how much of a comic-geek you are it may not be that informative....
Callahan's Lady:I have a weird relationship with Spider Robinson. The early Callahan stories are fucking brilliant and beautiful, they're about bad puns and forgiveness and community problem-solving and kindness to strangers and booze. Reading through them got me through some Terrible Brainchemistry Times.
But then somewhere in the middle of the series the focus shifts and they become about bad puns and doing terrible things to terrible people and sex and Jake Spider Jake sort of refusing to grow up and booze. And this book is kind of the exact midpoint. There are four novellas here; the first two did exactly what I want a Callahan story to do.
Then the third.... Was really fucking terrifying, it was about rape via mind control, and ended with Lady Sally erasing everyone's memory of the incident. THIS IS NOT A HAPPY ENDING, PEOPLE. And then the last one was all about screwing over a mob boss who is not only a disgusting terrible person, but a disgusting terrible person who is too stupid to ever be redeemed. It ends with prison rape jokes. This is why I only finished three books this month, I had to stop and put this one down constantly because it was gross.
Not on the list due to Paypal problems that can't be resolved until my mom gets back from B.C.: The Wolf House: Fair Game, Mary Borsellino.
And now, for something completely different: The meme where people pick icons for you to talk about is going around!
Via mrs-laugh-track:
All icons made by me. Because I like to only use my own, then I don't need to worry about forgetting who to credit.
1.
*________* STEPH. So for a while my Steph icon was really sad, it was dead!Steph from Batgirl with "Do not put your faith in a cape and a hood/They will not protect you the way that they should", from Into The Woods. Which was perfect for how I felt about Steph when I made it. But I started making more and more happy Steph-related posts, and so I needed a less depressing icon to use with them! And then for halfamoon this year I made a whole bunch of Gotham Girls icons. A lot of them used Ani DiFranco lyrics, because nearly a third of my BoP/Gotham Girls playlist is her. So! Stephanie Brown: More than a Pretty Girl. Yep.
2.
EVEN-NUMBERED ROBINS ARE MY FAVOURITE. This is a sad icon, obvs, because it is Memorial Cases of Bat-Angst, but it is also a triumphant icon because, Steph finally got a Case. I also ship Steph/Jason a ridiculous amount, and they've never actually met in-canon, so this is the closest to an icon of them I can probably get? I love them. They're both angry screw-ups determined to do what they think is right! What Jason thinks is right is occasionally uh, cutting people's heads off, but shh. ROBINS.
3.
Tim Burton and Lisa Marie, at the Sleepy Hollow premiere. I LOVE THEIR STUPID CRAZY SELVES. Lisa was Tim's long-term girlfriend throughout the nineties, she was the inspiration for Sally in Nightmare Before Christmas. The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy is dedicated to her. It includes this poem, which I am ridiculous enough to not have to go look up:
"Stick Boy loved Match Girl
He liked her a lot
He liked her cute figure
He thought she was hot
But could a flame ever burn for a match and a stick?
It did quite literally
He burnt up pretty quick"
Towards the end of their relationship, there was an online cartoon of Stainboy Adventures, where Lisa did the voice of Match Girl. Normal people stay together for the kids, they were at that point staying together for the chihuahua. The last movie they did together was Planet of the Apes, where Tim met Helena Bonham-Carter. Now, I love Helena! I really do! But I do think Tim's best, most creative output was when he was with Lisa.
THIS IS MY FANDOM. THAT NOBODY ELSE IS IN.
4.
There's this French/Polish film about the French Revolution/Reign of Terror, it's called Danton and colonize and I had to watch it in history class in high school. It is BRILLIANT, and by brilliant I mean probably not actually very good to normal people. It made me ship Robespierre/EVERYONE, it's kind of ridiculous. Anyway! "Don't ogle Citizen Robespierre!" is a line from that movie! SOUND ADVICE.
Also from that movie: This cap, which eventually morphed into "ROBESPIERRE, YOU IGNORANT SLUT!" which is Hilarious, okay.
I had originally planned to have a Kate Beaton icon for "History is my fandom", but I couldn't pick just one comic, so I've stuck with this one. Because Robespierre is comedy gold, when you're me, I guess.
So, yeah! Comment if you want me to pick some icons!